2. Leadership & Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

Choice Quote: “Self-deception is like this. It blinds us to the true causes of problems, and once we’re blind, all the ‘solutions’ we can think of will actually make matters worse. Whether at work or at home, self-deception obscures the truth about ourselves, corrupts our view of others and our circumstances, and inhibits our ability to make wise and helpful decisions.”

The Arbinger Institute has helped thousands of organization improve their efficiency and effectiveness since 1979.

This book presents the story of a single organization and examines the psychology of changing and improving a company’s systems from within.

Top 2 Fiction Books for Shifting Your Perspective in 2018:

You might be thinking, “Fiction is a waste of time. What is it doing on a list of important things for business owners to read?”

Here’s the thing: fiction engages your brain differently than non-fiction. Fiction wakes up the part of your brain that loves stories. A good novel grabs ahold of you and pulls you into itself. That’s when the important part happens:

You see the world through the eyes of other people.

You read a character’s actions and put yourself in their shoes. This encourages radical empathy AND forces you to consider solutions to problems from other people’s perspective.

It acts as an exercise in problem-solving. Say you’re dealing with an employee issue, if your first thought when approaching the problem is “How can I arrive a solution that benefits both me and the employee?” you are way more likely to get the employee to buy into the solution.

Reading fiction works out the part of your brain that looks at problems in a multi-faceted way and creates “muscle memory” so that you approach real-life problems in the same way.

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline is a self-proclaimed nerd. Ready Player One is a tribute to all of the things he grew up loving (Steven Spielberg movies, Star Wars, and arcade games). It’s set in a future where the world is more interested in virtual reality than actual reality and follows the adventures of a kid trying to unravel the puzzles of the virtual world’s creator.

2. Replay by Ken Grimwood

Replay is a novel built around the premise of a guy who lives the same 25 years of his life over and over again. Each time the memories of the previous attempt are intact. Each time this happens, he adapts his focus and leverages his memories to different ends.

It’s a time travel story, but only on the surface. Below that is the consideration of “what ifs” we all have. If I had done or said X differently what would have happened?

The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz

“While working on The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci regularly took off from painting for several hours at a time and seemed to be daydreaming aimlessly. Urged by his patron, the prior of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to work more continuously, da Vinci is reported to have replied, immodestly but accurately, ‘The greatest geniuses accomplish more when they work less.”

Tony Schwartz has a problem: we’re all working the wrong way. He wants to fix that by examining myths and exaggerations about how we work and debunking or embracing them.

The Star Principle by Richard Koch

“As the New Yorker columnist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has shown, word of mouth can flare up and quickly die or it can reach the ‘tipping point’ where no force on earth can arrest the product’s relentless forward march. The art of the entrepreneur is to get word of mouth to the tipping point.”

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

“Life is struggle.’ I believe that within that quote lies the most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle.”

Ben Horowitz runs a venture capital firm in the far-off spaceland of Silicon Valley. He’ll give you the principles that startups use to remain successful. If you’re always thinking big, your business will be able to scale.

Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles

These are a fictional series set in the fantastic “Four Corners.” Pat Rothfuss is the kind of writer who approaches magic like a science and creates clear rules for his universe before he plays with all the characters in it.

Cody Owen

Cody is a copywriter with Service Autopilot. He was writing before he could read, dictating stories to his mom. Of late, he distills business principles and practices learned from his ever-increasing trove of books and his year with SA Support into digestible blog posts designed to provide maximum value to service industry business owners.